EL RENO — The 33-year marriage of Keith and Rebecca Bryan ended abruptly when he was shot in the head Sept. 20, 2011, in the couple's Mustang home.

Nichols Hills Fire Chief Keith Bryan, 52, died Sept. 21, 2011, at OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City after being shot in the head.

Testimony from the first week of Becky Bryan's murder trial supports the argument made by prosecutors that the relationship never recovered from an extramarital affair she began in 2009.

Becky Bryan has claimed an intruder came into their home at 1320 W Rose Hill Drive about 10 p.m. and shot her husband as he sat on the couch in their living room before apologizing to her and saying the fire chief should have hired him.

Prosecutors argue Bryan took a .380-caliber Ruger she was known to carry for personal defense, covered it in a throw blanket from the Bryan home and shot her husband at close range. Her gun was found in the dryer of the couple's utility room, along with a latex glove, a shell casing and the blanket, riddled with bullet-size holes.

Affair begins

Becky Bryan and Mark Holbrook, of Hugo, had an affair that ended in January 2010, Holbrook testified. He said that she continued to contact him long after he ended the relationship and both pledged not to contact each other.

He testified that Bryan left him a voice mail three hours before the shooting, saying she still loved him, she expected to get a large inheritance soon and planned to move to Hugo to be near him.

Prosecutors argue Bryan's love for Holbrook boiled over in the days before her husband's shooting as she had sex with two men, one of them a stranger, and sent nude photos of herself to others in an attempt to seduce them before killing Keith Bryan.

Prosecutors and Becky Bryan's attorney, Gary James, agree that the couple's marriage became strained after she met Holbrook at a real estate class in summer 2009. The class was three days a week for three weeks, and the two became friends.

Both were married, and Holbrook said they parted ways nothing more than friends when the class ended. Weeks later, Holbrook and Bryan met again in Tulsa when they took the real estate test they had been studying for during the class.

Holbrook said they went to lunch after the test.

“At that point, we started talking more on a personal level,” Holbrook said. “We started to have feelings toward each other more than friends.”

The met a few weeks later at a park in Weleetka, roughly halfway between Holbrook's home in Hugo and Bryan's home in Mustang. Their mutual feelings grew.

As Bryan and Holbrook continued talking, they discussed leaving their spouses and getting married. They spent weekends together whenever they could both get away from work and family.

They began having sex in December 2009, he said.

Holbrook had moved out of his home but never filed for divorce. Becky Bryan filed for divorce in January 2010, just as she and Holbrook were set to spend a weekend together at a cabin she rented in Broken Bow.

Holbrook testified that was the longest amount of time he had spent with Becky Bryan, and his feelings started to change.

“I started to realize she wasn't the person I thought she was,” Holbrook said. “She became manipulative. She was wanting me to divorce my wife sooner than I wanted to. I wasn't going to do that. I was going to do it on my time.”

Holbrook decided to end things with Bryan. They both agreed to tell their spouses.

The next day, Holbrook got a call from Keith Bryan. Becky Bryan was also on the line. Holbrook said he confirmed the affair and apologized to Keith Bryan.

“I made a vow to him not to have any more contact with her,” Holbrook said. “He agreed we should try to reconcile with our spouses and get on with our lives.”